Despite losing heavily in the final of the FIBA World Cup 2014 to Team USA, Serbia received a heroes welcome after returning home from Spain on Monday.

Despite an uninspiring 2-3 run in the group phase, Serbia went on to defeat Greece, Brazil and France en route to making the final of the tournament, but ultimately they came up short in a 129-92 loss against a dominant USA side.

Nevertheless, that didn’t seem to bother their fans who turned out in their thousands to welcome them home on Monday, with the likes of Milos Teodosic and Bogdan Bogdanovic making their country proud after exceeding all expectations.

Coach Sasha Djordjevic is undoubtedly a popular man after masterminding their run against supposedly superior opposition throughout the knockout phase, and he will hope that it is a major boost for basketball in the country as they continue to show their passion for the game.

Meanwhile, the same scenes aren’t expected in the US as the interest in the tournament is a drop in the ocean compared to that shown in the NBA, but there is no denying that Team USA deserved their gold medal after going through the tournament unbeaten.